1. Distributions to Shareholders: Dividends and Repurchases
CHAPTER 14
Distributions to Shareholders: Dividends and Repurchases

2. Topics in Chapter Theories of investor preferences Signaling effects
Residual model
Stock repurchases
Stock dividends and stock splits
Dividend reinvestment plans

3. Free Cash Flow: Distributions to Shareholders
Sales revenues −
Operating costs and taxes
Required investments in operating capital −
Free cash flow
(FCF) =
Sources
Uses
Figure 1-6 in FM13.
Interest
payments
(after tax)
Purchase of
short-term
investments
Stock
repurchases
Principal
repayments
Dividends

4. What is “distribution policy”?
The distribution policy defines:
The level of cash distributions to shareholders
The form of the distribution (dividend vs. stock repurchase)
The stability of the distribution

5. Distributions Patterns Over Time
The percent of total payouts a a percentage of net income has been stable at around 26%-28%.
Dividend payout rates have fallen, stock repurchases have increased.
Repurchases now total more dollars in distributions than dividends.
A smaller percentage of companies now pay dividends. When young companies first begin making distributions, it is usually in the form of repurchases.
Dividend payouts have become more concentrated in a smaller number of large, mature firms.

6. Dividend Yields for Selected Industries
Industry
Div. Yield %
Recreational Products
0.02
Forest Products
0.91
Software
0.32
Household Products
0.62
Food
0.04
Electric Utilities
1.10
Banks
0.21
Tobacco
0.45
Source: Yahoo Industry Data, March 2009

7. Do investors prefer high or low payouts?
There are three dividend theories:
Dividends are irrelevant: Investors don’t care about payout.
Dividend preference, or bird-in-the-hand: Investors prefer a high payout.
Tax effect: Investors prefer a low payout.

8. Dividend Irrelevance Theory
Investors are indifferent between dividends and retention-generated capital gains. If they want cash, they can sell stock. If they don’t want cash, they can use dividends to buy stock.
Modigliani-Miller support irrelevance.
Implies payout policy has no effect on stock value or the required return on stock.
Theory is based on unrealistic assumptions (no taxes or brokerage costs).

9. Dividend Preference (Bird-in-the-Hand) Theory
Investors might think dividends (i.e., the-bird-in-the-hand) are less risky than potential future capital gains.
Also, high payouts help reduce agency costs by depriving managers of cash to waste and causing managers to have more scrutiny by going to the external capital markets more often.
Therefore, investors would value high payout firms more highly and would require a lower return to induce them to buy its stock.

10. Tax Effect Theory
Low payouts mean higher capital gains. Capital gains taxes are deferred until they are realized, so they are taxed at a lower effective rate than dividends.
This could cause investors to require a higher pre-tax return to induce them to buy a high payout stock, which would result in a lower stock price.

11. Which theory is most correct?
Some research suggests that high payout companies have higher required returns on stock, supporting the tax effect hypothesis.
But other research using an international sample shows that in countries with poor investor protection (where agency costs are most severe), high payout companies are valued more highly than low payout companies.
Empirical testing has produced mixed results.

12. What’s the “clientele effect”?
Different groups of investors, or clienteles, prefer different dividend policies.
Firm’s past dividend policy determines its current clientele of investors.
Clientele effects impede changing dividend policy. Taxes & brokerage costs hurt investors who have to switch companies due to a change in payout policy.
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13. What’s the “information content,” or “signaling,” hypothesis?
Investors view dividend changes as signals of management’s view of the future. Managers hate to cut dividends, so won’t raise dividends unless they think raise is sustainable.
Therefore, a stock price increase at time of a dividend increase could reflect higher expectations for future EPS, not a desire for dividends.
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14. What’s the “residual distribution model”?
Find the reinvested earnings needed for the capital budget.
Pay out any leftover earnings (the residual) as either dividends or stock repurchases.
This policy minimizes flotation and equity signaling costs, hence minimizes the WACC.
توزيع المتبقي

15. Using the Residual Model to Calculate Distributions Paid
Net
income
Target
equity
ratio
Total
capital
budget
Distr. = – Required equity

16. Application of the Residual Distribution Approach: Data for SSC
Capital budget: $112.5 million.
Target capital structure: 20% debt, 80% equity. Want to maintain.
Forecasted net income: $140 million.
Number of shares: 100 million.

17. Application of the Residual Distribution Approach
Number of shares
100
Equity ratio (ws)
80%
Capital budget
$112.5
Net income
$140.0
$90.0
$160.0
Req. equ.: (ws X Cap. Bgt.)
Dist. paid: (NI – Req. equity)
$50.0
$0.0
$70.0
Payout ratio (Dividend/NI)
35.7%
0.0%
43.8%
Dividend per share
$0.50
$0.00
$0.70

18. Investment Opportunities and Residual Dividends
Fewer good investments would lead to smaller capital budget, hence to a higher dividend payout.
More good investments would lead to a lower dividend payout.

19. Advantages and Disadvantages of the Residual Dividend Policy
Advantages: Minimizes new stock issues and flotation costs.
Disadvantages: Results in variable dividends, sends conflicting signals, increases risk, and doesn’t appeal to any specific clientele.
Conclusion: Consider residual policy when setting target payout, but don’t follow it rigidly.

20. The Procedures of a Dividend Payment: An Example
November 11: Board declares a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share to holders of record as of December 10.
December 7: Dividend goes with stock.
December 8: Ex-dividend date.
December 10: Holder of record date.
December 31: Payment date to holders of record.

21. Stock Repurchases
Repurchases: Buying own stock back from stockholders.
Reasons for repurchases:
As an alternative to distributing cash as dividends.
To dispose of one-time cash from an asset sale.
To make a large capital structure change.
To use when employees exercise stock options.

22. The Procedures of a Repurchase
Firm announces intent to repurchase stock.
Three ways to purchase:
Have broker/trustee purchase on open market over period of time.
Make a tender offer to shareholders.
Make a block (targeted) repurchase.
Firm doesn’t have to complete its announced intent to repurchase.

23. SSC Before a Distribution: Inputs (Millions)
Value of operations
$1,937.50
Short-term investments
$50.00
Debt
$387.50
Number of shares
100.00

24. Intrinsic Value Before Distribution
Vop
$1,937.50
+ ST Inv.
50.00
VTotal
$1,987.50
− Debt
387.50 S
$1,600.00 ÷n
100.00 P
$16.00

25. Intrinsic Value After a $50 Million Dividend Distribution
Before
After Dividend
Vop
$1,937.50
+ ST Inv.
50.00
0.00
VTotal
$1,987.50
− Debt
387.50 S
$1,600.00
$1,550.00 ÷n
100.00 P
$16.00
$15.50
DPS
$0.50

26. Drop in Price with Dividend Distribution
Note that stock price drops by dividend per share in model.
If it didn’t there would be arbitrage opportunity (assuming no taxes).
In real world, stock price drops on average by about 90% of dividend.

27. A repurchase has no effect on stock price!
The announcement of an intended repurchase might send a signal that affects stock price, and the previous events that led to cash available for a distribution affect stock price, but the actual repurchase has no impact on stock price because:
If investors thought that the repurchase would increase the stock price, they would all purchase stock the day before, which would drive up its price.
If investors thought that the repurchase would decrease the stock price, they would all sell short the stock the day before, which would drive down the stock price.

28. Remaining Number of Shares After Repurchase
# shares repurchased = nPrior − nPost
# shares repurchased =CashRep/PPrior
nPrior − nPost = CashRep/PPrior
nPost = nPrior − (CashRep/PPrior)

29. Remaining Number of Shares After Repurchase
nPost = nPrior − (CashRep/PPrior)
nPost = 100 − ($50/$16)
nPost = 100 − =

30. Intrinsic Value After a $50 Million Repurchase
Before
After Repurchase
Vop
$1,937.50
+ ST Inv.
50.00
0.00
VTotal
$1,987.50
− Debt
387.50 S
$1,600.00
$1,550.00 ÷n
100.00
96.875 P
$16.00
Shares rep.
3.125

31. Key Points
ST investments fall because they are used to repurchase stock.
Stock price is unchanged by actual repurchase.
Value of equity falls from $1,600 to $1,550 because firm no longer owns the ST investments.
Wealth of shareholders remains at $1,600 because shareholders now directly own the $50 that was previously held by firm in ST investments.

32. Advantages of Repurchases
Stockholders can choose to sell or not.
Helps avoid setting a high dividend that cannot be maintained.
Income received is capital gains rather than higher-taxed dividends.
Stockholders may take as a positive signal--management thinks stock is undervalued.

33. Disadvantages of Repurchases
May be viewed as a negative signal (firm has poor investment opportunities).
IRS could impose penalties if repurchases were primarily to avoid taxes on dividends.

34. Setting Dividend Policy
Forecast capital needs over a planning horizon, often 5 years.
Set a target capital structure.
Estimate annual equity needs.
Set target payout based on the residual model.
Generally, some dividend growth rate emerges. Maintain target growth rate if possible, varying capital structure somewhat if necessary.

35. Stock Dividends vs. Stock Splits
Stock dividend: Firm issues new shares in lieu of paying a cash dividend. If 10%, get 10 shares for each 100 shares owned.
Stock split: Firm increases the number of shares outstanding, say 2:1. Sends shareholders more shares.

36. Both stock dividends and stock splits increase the number of shares outstanding, so “the pie is divided into smaller pieces.”
Unless the stock dividend or split conveys information, or is accompanied by another event like higher dividends, the stock price falls so as to keep each investor’s wealth unchanged.
But splits/stock dividends may get us to an “optimal price range.”

37. When should a firm consider splitting its stock?
There’s a widespread belief that the optimal price range for stocks is $20 to $80.
Stock splits can be used to keep the price in the optimal range.
Stock splits generally occur when management is confident, so are interpreted as positive signals.

38. What’s a “dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP)”?
Shareholders can automatically reinvest their dividends in shares of the company’s common stock. Get more stock than cash.
There are two types of plans:
Open market
New stock

39. Open Market Purchase Plan
Dollars to be reinvested are turned over to trustee, who buys shares on the open market.
Brokerage costs are reduced by volume purchases.
Convenient, easy way to invest, thus useful for investors.

40. New Stock Plan
Firm issues new stock to DRIP enrollees, keeps money and uses it to buy assets.
No fees are charged, plus sells stock at discount of 5% from market price, which is about equal to flotation costs of underwritten stock offering.

41. Optional investments sometimes possible, up to $150,000 or so.
Firms that need new equity capital use new stock plans.
Firms with no need for new equity capital use open market purchase plans.
Most NYSE listed companies have a DRIP. Useful for investors.